7 Years
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: How do the crew of Deep Space Nine feel about the last seven years, what they have lost and what they have gained?
1. Chapter 1 Kira

Foreword - I don't own anything of the Star Trek universe. Although if I'd had my way, Star Trek Discovery would have been done properly.

Please let me know what you think.

While a lot of things happened in the seven years of the show, I am not going to write about ALL of them. I'm just summarising.

* * *

7 Years.

Paperwork.

Nothing but paperwork. And yet she was completely incapable of thinking of anything in front of her.

She had always hated paperwork; hated being bogged down with reports, lists, and on and on it went. She had always preferred being in the thick of the action of the moment like she had during the Occupation and during the Dominion War, but times had changed for her. Now she had a responsibility, and she had no intention of ignoring her job.

As she poured over all the PADDSs on the Capt-no, she corrected herself, her desk, Kira Nerys couldn't help but think about the last seven years she had been on DS9.

Nerys's eyes swept over to the baseball that was on the mount where it had been for the past seven years, kept there lovingly by Captain Sisko, who had made the unspoken tradition of leaving the ball behind as a message, a message which said he was going to come back.

Sisko had left the ball here while he had gone to Bajor on his mysterious errand where he had disappeared - officially; she and the rest of the stations' command team had had more than enough encounters with the Prophets to know they existed without a doubt, but he had left the ball here and that and the vision he had sent to Kasady, his new wife, was an omen that he would definitely come back.

She had no idea how long it would be before Sisko returned, but Nerys would definitely make sure the baseball would remain here until the day he came back; sure, she had no idea how long that would be since the Prophets lived outside of linear time, but she hoped he would be back before they were all old and wrinkly, and needing a cane to move or something like that.

Well, if she knew Benjamin Sisko, then her commanding officer would not let that happen. He would likely glance at every ship passing to and fro the wormhole now the war with the Dominion was over, and learn from them how much time had passed and hopefully take it from there, but she was only guessing. Kira had no way of knowing for sure if her friend was going to do that or not, but she could always live in hope.

Nerys sighed and pushed the stack of PADDs out of the way before she got to her feet and walked around the office, thinking.

Seven years…

It was so hard to believe that just _seven years _had passed. She could see herself from seven years in the past, so full of anger at the galaxy at large for the pain and the misery she and every single Bajoran had endured at the hands of the Cardassian Occupation, and now look at how things had turned out. The struggles she and the rest of the DS9 crew had faced in those early days when she was still trying to get used to the notion of working with a _Starfleet commander, _viewing him and the others as the enemy.

Kira had known from the moment the Provisional Government had asked the Federation for help simply because the Bajoran people could not take care of itself since the Cardassians had ravaged Bajor to the point where it was impossible for families just to have _clean and freshwater _for a single night, it would not be easy.

No Bajoran trusted aliens at that point, though it wasn't really surprising, was it?

Alright, she and her people had known on an intellectual level the Federation were nothing like the Cardassians, and they had applied increasing diplomatic pressure on the Cardassian Union to get them to leave Bajor, especially when they heard what was going on with the occupation; the death camps, the punitive destruction of the planet's resources.

Like extremists such as Tahna Los and the rest of the Kohn-Ma and the Circle, Kira had not wanted the Federation anywhere near Bajor, so she had shared some of their views, but unlike those extremists who had wanted to isolate the Bajoran people even more while they ignored the facts the wormhole would open up other figurative doorways for trade opportunities, she had worked out very quickly that people like Jarro and Tahna would only cause Bajor more pain.

Why was it the extremist members of her people never thought about the long-term? They were even worse than the Collaborators who had sold out many Bajorans to the Cardassians during the Occupation.

Nerys squashed that thought out of her mind.

The discovery of the wormhole and the belief in the Prophets had been reignited and it had given the Bajorans their hope back even if the Cardassian Occupation had robbed so many of her people of their faith. Thinking about that reminded her of that sick cult Dukat had founded on Empok Nor, although she knew Pah-Wraith cults had existed for thousands of years, believing the Pah-Wraiths to be the true gods of Bajor.

It sickened her, especially after everything she had seen and experienced. Hell, _Jadzia, _one of the best friends whom she had ever made had been murdered in cold blood by Dukat who had been possessed by one of those foul monsters. Even worse, it had been _Kira _who had told the scientifically inclined Trill to pray for a child between her and Worf, so she did feel guilty. She'd had nightmares for a long time, and she would always be haunted by the pain and grief-filled cry from Worf when Jadzia had died.

But as she thought about the past seven years and the things she had seen… Kira knew she would never change them for the world. The last seven years had been difficult, traumatic, but amazing. She had been so set to dislike the Starfleet personnel, and while it had been difficult at times - like that time the telepathic presence of the Saltah'na power struggle augmented the distrust between the two groups sprang to mind - but over the years she had become great friends with them, and over the course of the year both groups had begun to work together.

That mess with the Circle was a major example of how closely the Bajorans and the Starfleet crew had come together, although it was such a horrible shame Li'Nalas has been killed, he had died the way he had wanted to go. Her expression turned nasty as she remembered that mess, remembering the beating she had received, from her own people, people who had been in the Resistance like she had. At the time she had wondered if the disease that was the Cardassians had infected her people, and she realised with each and every single blow she received, that the Cardassians had poisoned her people.

With each blow, she became more convinced about it, but she was relieved the Central Command's plan to once more occupy Bajor had failed. The Circle would have been destroyed when the Cardassian army returned, and a new occupation would have started while the Cardassians had access to the wormhole and the Gamma Quadrant.

Thinking of the wormhole made Nerys think. When it had first been discovered by Sisko and Dax, Nerys had instantly seen the benefits behind having the wormhole; with a shattered planet and a scared and traumatised people, the wormhole would offer trade opportunities with the various races on the other side of the wormhole, and at the same time it would provide hope for her people's religion. The wormhole was the Celestial Temple. It's discovery had revived their religion, which had been in sharp decline thanks to the Occupation.

But the wormhole had also opened the door to a new kind of hell, to an enemy who made the Cardassians look like amateurs.

The Dominion had terrified the Alpha Quadrant for two years before the War had begun. But that was what the Founders wanted, they had wanted the fear, they had wanted the alliances throughout the Alpha Quadrant to be shattered into nothingness. She had always thought the Cardassians were good when it came to long games, but the Founders were something else. With their shapeshifting abilities, they terrified everyone since no-one knew if the person next to you was a changeling infiltrator.

Nerys remembered the alliance between the Tal'Shiar and the Obsidian Order, made up with the Cardassian ships being built in secret which Thomas Riker and his small group of Maquis had tried to find, though Thomas had no way of knowing the fleet was not going to be used by Tain to attack the DMZ, but the original homeworld of the Founders, and everyone knew how that had turned out.

The fear of the Founders had made the Klingons go on a rampage through the quadrant, though she remembered the shock she and everyone else had felt with the discovery General Martok was a changeling infiltrator, and the real Martok was locked up in the Gamma Quadrant. But when the war itself had begun…

Nerys closed her eyes as she remembered the Dominion occupation of the station, remembering the still painful memories of Ziyal's death; she and Damar had resolved their differences when they'd worked together to form the Cardassian Liberation Front when Damar had been overwhelmed by the Dominion's treatment of him and his people, but a part of her would never forgive him for what he had done.

Oh, Damar might have dressed it up at the time, said he was doing it for Cardassia's benefit, but when she had seen the look in his eyes, the hollow pain they carried when he found out the Dominion had murdered his own family…the pair of them became kindred spirits. In a way she had been delighted that finally, the Cardassians knew what it meant to be the victims of an Occupation, but even they had never taken it to the extremes as the Jem'Hadar and the Female Founder had taken it.

She had always wondered why the Cardassians had never tried to wipe out her people the same way, but she was glad they hadn't. Even now she was haunted by the sight of Cardassia's capital city burning.

Nerys shuddered and found herself looking outside of the windows overlooking Ops. She smiled when she caught sight of the family faces out there, though there were some whom she would never see again.

Jadzia. Worf. Miles...

Thinking of the O'Brien family made her smile in a melancholic way. While she was happy for Miles for getting that position at Starfleet Academy, knowing full well how good a teacher he was since he had managed to teach Nog about Engineering, Nerys hoped he would come and visit a few times. She loved spending time with Molly and Yoshi. She smiled at the thought of the boy whom she had carried after Keiko had been injured.

Thinking about her loved ones made Nerys remember all the men she had loved - Thomas Riker, Barreil, Shakaar and Odo…

Nerys licked her lips, wondering if Odo would be alright when he left for his people; with the disease his people were suffering at the moment, the Founders wouldn't be in much of a position to do anything against Odo even though she thought their law of not harming another changeling was bogus; that changeling who had taken on the form of Ambassador Krajensky hadn't seemed to care about torturing Odo and keeping him unharmed, from what it looked like from the Defiant's flight recorder logs, but she wasn't sure. Nerys doubted the Founders in the Great Link would give Odo much trouble; after what she had seen of the disease Section 31 had infected them with, it would be a miracle for them to even _change their shape. _

It was just…unfair.

Odo was leaving on top of everything else, but Nerys knew she would cope.

She always had in the past, but if the Founders so much as harmed the changeling who had won her heart, though a small voice in her head wondered how such a relationship would work, then she would make them regret it. And yet…she remembered how shy he had been when she had found a copy of that book on a PADD in Odo's quarters shortly after he had been returned to changeling form after that business with the infant changeling; just looking at his face then…it had caught her heart.


	2. Chapter 2 Bashir

7 Years.

As he watched as his friend Miles and his family walked through the airlock for the last time to the ship which would take them back to Earth, Doctor Julian Bashir felt as if an era was ending.

In a way it was, and as he watched the O'Brien family leave the station for the last time - Miles, Keiko, Molly, and little Yoshi- Julian couldn't help but feel lonely now they were gone. Yes, he had other friends of course, even though several members of the command staff who had been here on the station since the very first day were also going, moving off to new assignments and challenges in their lives.

Julian didn't resent the O'Brien's for their choice, though it was upsetting. He had formed strong ties to the family over the last seven years, which was one of the best things ever, especially since, looking back with his calmer demeanour he had pushed them away with his earlier persona of a boyish buffoon who had sometimes gone too far. Especially with women; and looking back now, some of the things he had said and done to attract the attention of women made him cringe right down to his boots.

And boy, had he loved and chased women.

One of the most persistent targets he'd had was Jadzia Dax. He had been fascinated with her from the moment they had met, and although he was now happy with dating Ezri, he realised now he and Jadzia could never have worked out.

Jadzia had always had her own taste, just like he had his.

He had matured, like a fine wine. He chuckled at the thought, although it was tempered with sorrow. He genuinely wished he had been able to save Jadzia from her painful and horrific death. It was so hard to believe the vibrant, happy young woman who had wanted a child with Worf was the same weak, dying woman who had died in just a few hours. When Jadzia had expressed her happiness, Julian had finally taken Vic's advice and realised he had never really had Jadzia, so brooding about it with Quark was not going to work.

And besides, when he had seen her expression of delight, he had realised he needed to get over it. Jadzia was happy with being with Worf, and that meant he should be happy for her.

And he was.

He had been happy for her, and he realised there and then he needed to mature.

And the image pleased him. He also knew deep down although he would miss the O'Brien family, he was happy for them while he remembered the good old days, and how long it had taken for them to become friends.

Julian was not stupid. He knew his attitude and his boastful persona had put off Miles and Keiko for so long, but he had always looked up at the older couple.

It wasn't until he and the O'Brien family had known each other for a long time and he had toned down his attitude, they had become more friendly.

But it was just so hard to believe seven years had passed; that was one thing which was still taking him off guard.

Seven years.

Seven years ago, he had come to the Bajoran sector shortly after the Cardassian Occupation, completely clueless about what he would find and while he had certainly opened his mouth and not bothered to engage his brain and annoyed Kira with his poorly thought out words, Julian had come to know the Bajoran people, and all of his neutral beliefs about the Cardassians had gone down the drain. It didn't help matters that shortly after he had arrived and the wormhole had been discovered, three Cardassian ships had wantonly attacked the station. Even now Julian had no idea what the Cardassian Gul in command had been thinking, attacking a Federation outpost since the treaty should have prevented it.

But as Miles had said, and repeated over the years, Setlik 3; the Cardassians simply did not observe the boundaries, and over the years Julian had developed a "smile but keep alert" policy around the Cardassians whenever he encountered them.

It didn't help he had personally treated dozens of Bajorans over the years who suffered from injuries inflicted on them by Cardassian oppression in some shape or form. From a medical perspective, what the Cardassians had done was beyond barbaric. So much for a civilised race.

It was the same with his own interactions with Garak, although the Cardassian tailor's past as a spy had thrilled Julian no end, although Julian learnt very quickly not to take everything Garak said at face value, and over the years he had learnt how to separate truth from fiction from whatever the Cardassian said.

He might have started out as a boastful peacock, but Julian was not stupid. He learnt from his mistakes most of the time, and he learnt to grow from them.

He wondered what was going to happen with Garak, and for a moment he was worried his old friend would face a lot of grief for his return but he doubted anything bad would happen; the Cardassian people had enough problems following the Dominion's wanton slaughter and destruction on their planet. The last thing they would do was punish a former Cardassian spy for coming home after so many years since so many of them now had few homes.

Thinking about the state of Cardassia put him in mind of other worlds which had been ravaged over the last two years, and while he was sympathetic towards the Cardassians, it was only because of Garak. Secretly Julian believed the Cardassians deserved what they had gotten.

Julie paused.

_When did I become so callous? Was it before or after the war? _

He didn't know, but he knew that seven years was more than enough time for personal growth, and he welcomed it even if he had not enjoyed some of what he had seen.

But Julian didn't regret the last seven years. They had been the most rewarding of his Starfleet career, and since he had wanted to come to Bajor in the first place, though many hadn't understood the reasons behind it. Julian had wanted to come out here because Starfleet was finally venturing out to a part of the galaxy where they had never been allowed to go for a century, and Julian had wanted to discover new diseases and open up the doors to new medical practices, and pioneer new treatments. After all, Doctor Phlox from the Enterprise NX-01 had brought Denobulan medical practices to the otherwise human crew, and Dr Leonard McCoy, who was a practically a God in Starfleet Medical circles for his own discoveries, among others.

But Julian didn't want to be a God.

Well, at least not quite.

A bit of recognition here and there would be lovely, but what he really wanted to do was to help people while at the same time stop himself from feeling like a fake, a pretender.

But Julian had always pushed those thoughts out of his head when he had been in a research team who helped others with the new discoveries brought back from the Gamma Quadrant; one good thing about the end of the Dominion War which had torn the Alpha Quadrant to _shreds _was that Starfleet could, hopefully, return to its roots as a scientific research organisation instead of being a fighting force, and if things with the Dominion panned the way Julian hoped it did, then Starfleet would be resuming its exploration of the Gamma Quadrant.

Julian was looking forward to the missions that were to come, although he had no idea if it would indeed happen or not. After the war with them, the Federation Council would probably be thinking through its policies concerning the Gamma Quadrant, especially since the Dominion had continually asked the Federation to stop its missions.

But he lived in hope.

At the same time, he had to wonder about what the future would bring.

He had no doubt the next few years would be as amazing and hard at the same time. The last few had been, and so many things had happened. He had travelled to a parallel universe he had only read about in the Academy's history lessons (he idly wondered what was happening with the Terran Rebellion, and whether 'Smiley' O'Brien was winning in that reality, but he decided it made no difference to him). He had travelled back in time, and came face to face with James Kirk, although he couldn't shake the legendary captain's hand and ask for an autograph; everyone would think he was out of his mind.

He had been possessed by a criminal. He had fallen in love with many beautiful women, though he knew it was not love. Not anymore. He had also come face to face with an organisation within the Federation itself which frequently took the law into its own hands, and he had been offered a _place _inside that organisation.

On top of that, he had fought for two years in a terrible war, a war he had known was coming along with everyone else, and he had grown so much as a person.

He hoped the Founders after Odo had spread the cure of the disease which had been wiping them out, changed. He _would not _think about the genocide Section 31 had commissioned to get rid of the Founders, even though a part of Julian had wondered at the time if the disease was, in fact, a solution; it was ironic, really. The Federation loved to _preach _against things as evil as genocide, prejudice, and yet it was willing to use a _bioweapon _against a powerful foe. It had disgusted him when he had learnt Captain Picard and his crew had tried to develop a computer program which would destroy the Borg Collective, but the thought of someone Julian considered to be a friend being used as a _carrier…. _

He hoped that eventually the Founders saw that the Federation was not the evil force they believed, the force they had spent two years trying to destroy, and two years previously trying to undermine from within simply because they were frightened.

Fear was a powerful motivator for war, and Julian knew it.

It was the same fear he'd always had about being discovered.

And he had.

When he had been at Starfleet Academy, Julian had been offered positions and given opportunities on a silver platter after medical practitioners had discovered his skills. The whole _Galaxy _was practically looking at him to solve all of their problems for them. All for the price of a single lie.

Julian closed his eyes for a minute as he remembered how the secret of his genetic enhancement had come out.

He had not been in a good place at the time.

It was bad enough he had spent a _month _in a Dominion POW camp without having to go through that. The only human there, although he had been pleased to have the company of General Martok, who quickly became the only Klingon there since all the others had been killed off one at a time by the Jem'Hadar soldiers in those sick games that put Julian in mind of the ancient Roman gladiator games. Julian remembered how he had arrived and two Klingon warriors who had been forced to take part in those games, but after a long time of being trapped there wanted nothing more than to either escape or just die and get it all over with.

It was a miracle Enabrain Tain had been there with a plan in mind, and while Julian detested the elderly Cardassian for what he had done to Garak, he respected Tain for his efforts right until the end.

Julian was just relieved Garak and Worf had saved them all, although Worf had a close call since he had been dragged into the Jem'Hadar games. With the Dominion War so close to starting, the last thing Julian had needed when he just wanted to rest and undergo therapy sessions, was his long-buried secret to be discovered.

He had been surprised when he had been nominated for being the model for the new Long-term Medical Holographic Projection program. Julian had heard of the emergency medical holographic program, but he had never seen one before in real life, but unlike other doctors who despised the thought of a hologram being a doctor, Julian hadn't really minded.

In his mind, it was hypocritical because of his own secret. Genetic enhancement was different from holography, but since anyone with genetic enhancement was demonised, and holograms were seen as nothing more than projections of light held in place by a magnetic forcefield, there was a sort of kindred connection there.

Julian had not been bothered by the tests and scans Dr Lewis Zimmerman carried out on him; it was, believe it or not, hard to determine if someone was augmented or not. And the genetic enhancement treatments he had been given as a six-year-old child had not been extensive enough, not like other augments from one of the darkest events of human history. So he hadn't been worried. Unless you were looking for it deliberately and besides, Julian had not been worried since Zimmerman was an engineer and not a medical practitioner. He had been more interested in gathering physical data rather than anything medical.

And then…his parents had blown it. And everything went pear-shaped.

What on _Deep Space Nine _had his parents been thinking when they rushed into a room where Miles and Zimmerman were working, although his idiot parents hadn't known it at the time, and they'd yakked at a holographic version of Julian who had no idea what they were talking about, but it was too late.

Zimmerman and Miles had found out about his enhancements, and Zimmerman had no choice but to tell Starfleet Command. When Julian had found out, he had been furious. He had warned his parents about opening their mouths, had they really not thought about the consequences? More to the point, why hadn't Miles stopped them?

Julian shook his head, pushing those questions out of his mind since they were meaningless now. His secret was out, and all of those years of hiding were gone. But he would never forget the fear.

When Julian had attended Starfleet Academy, he had witnessed the arrival of the colonists from the Genome Colony on Moab IV, who'd been brought to Earth in order to reconnect with the rest of the human race and the rest of the Federation. What he had seen had horrified him and only highlighted his own fears of what could and probably would happen if his secret was ever uncovered.

He remembered how protesters who were rioting when the Enterprise crew brought back the colonists to Earth shouted all kinds of terrible things at the colonists, but not notable was one name.

Khan.

Khan as in Khan Noonien Singh.

The infamous augment warlord. The warlord who had ruled over a chunk of Earth for so long, and was considered one of the worst of the tyrants who'd had their DNA spliced by scientists who hadn't seen the long term _consequences_ of their plans to _improve _the species.

Julian had seen the colonists and he had felt a kinship with them. These people had been genetically engineered like himself. Granted, they had been augmented when they were at an embryonic stage, he had his enhancements performed when he was six-years-old, and they had their talents and place in the colony already pre-determined whereas his enhancements were geared for reflexes, hand-eye coordination, cardiovascular alterations and development of the neural pathways.

His parents may have been obsessed with image, but even they would have baulked at the thought of their son being programmed like a robot or a computer to fulfil a set task without having any personality of his own.

Julian had known how those colonists had felt when the Enterprise crew had foolishly brought them to Earth; what was Picard and the others thinking? Or maybe they had wanted to show them augmented humans were not welcome. Julian didn't know, and frankly, he didn't want to know.

It took an effort for Julian to push those thoughts aside, although he could not get the images out of his head. He still saw the sight of those terrified colonists who had only wanted to _see _Earth, only to be greeted by scorn and bigotry from people who were only repeating the cycle of hatred which had started with the Eugenics Wars and had only been stoked by the mess caused by Arik Soong in the 22nd century when he had grown those augmented embryos and nearly started a terrible war between Earth and the Klingon Empire, before Khan had returned twice in the 23rd century.

It was all ignorance, really, only unlike with the civil rights movement where humans of another colour were discriminated against, Julian believed it would take a miracle for the science of genetic engineering to make a comeback, only he hoped if it did then humanity would be a little wiser.

Fortunately, it didn't take Julian long to find something else to think about.

With the war over, Julian had no idea what further challenges would be coming around, but he knew he would deal with them.

They always did.


	3. Chapter 3 Dax

7 Years.

It was strange, she had the memories of six years worth of experience on this station, but she had _personally _been on the station as the Station Counsellor for a year, and yet Ezri was still confused. For her, being joined was a strange, disorientating experience given how she had been on Earth at the Academy before being moved onto her first deep-space assignment where she began training as a counsellor while Jadzia was here on the station. Now she was joined with the symbiont, Ezri had six years worth of experience which was not hers. Hence her confusion.

She had been joined to the Dax symbiont for a year and a few months now and yet despite getting a better control over herself which was a plus considering _what happened _after she'd woken up after the symbiont had been joined, even to this day Ezri still shuddered at how the symbiont had taken over her after overwhelming her personality with eight other personalities until her own was battered down without being able to properly fight back, and she still had terrible nightmares of the event, only in these nightmares _Ezri _never came back…

As she stared thoughtfully out of the viewing window on the Promenade, Ezri looked out at the vista of space while dozens of starships passed by - it was certainly an impressive mix of Federation, Klingon, and a few Romulan ships...

Ezri wasn't even sure if it would last.

Nobody did.

There was a huge amount of debate about what was going to happen now, although many in Starfleet HQ had the attitude _the war is over, let's return to how it was before. _

It was the same attitude Starfleet had had after the Battle of Wolf 359, only back then there had been terror at the thought of the Borg coming back to Earth and finishing the job of the first cube which had devastated the fleet as though the cube were a massive wrecking ball demolishing the entire fleet. The terror had been enough to urge Starfleet to commission the research and design of the Defiant-class, supervised by Ben Sisko. Only for the 'fleet to say "the Borg aren't going to come back, so lets put the ship into mothballs and tidy our hands."

How stupid could they be?

Ezri remembered thanks to Jadzia's secondhand memories the way Ben had felt after he had come back from Starfleet Command on Earth after the first run-in with the Jem'Hadar. Jadzia may not have been a counsellor, though she didn't need to be since she was observant enough to read body language and the tones of somebody's voices, although it helped with the experience of all the other Dax hosts to back her up, she knew how Benjamin felt about the Jem'Hadar and the threat of the Dominion.

It brought back terrible memories of the Borg. Ezri remembered the Borg scare, how everyone was terrified of the thought of becoming cybernetic zombies after the story of what had happened to Captain Picard and the colonists of Jouret IV, the attack on the USS Lalo, and the previous attacks on the outposts on both sides of the Neutral Zone came out.

_Everyone _had been terrified of losing their individuality and being linked to a Hive mind where their _bodies _would be forced to perform complex tasks while their minds were linked together, unable to grow in the name of the Collective's desire for perfection. Ezri wasn't particularly surprised by Ben's bitterness towards Starfleet for not only taking the cowards way out towards the Borg but the Jem'Hadar. Did they really think the Jem'Hadar and the rest of the Dominion weren't already preparing for war? The attitude had remained for years until the war began although many in Starfleet had wanted to have a diplomatic solution prepared. If it wasn't for the threat of the Dominion already worrying dozens of other admirals who had the sense to order preparations, they would have lost.

Ezri remembered the frustration Jadzia had felt during those first few months of the war where nothing was being accomplished, though it changed pretty quickly over time.

Truthfully Ezri had no idea what was going to happen with the ships outside. They had been circling the station for the last couple of years especially following the success of Ben's plan to retake DS9, all aware of the strategic importance of the station since it was so close to the wormhole.

She hoped the Federation didn't readopt that same stupid attitude.

Their complacency had nearly gotten the entire Alpha Quadrant destroyed, everything the United Federation of Planets held dear for the last three centuries…gone up in smoke, either because the Federation didn't take the threat of the Borg Collective or the Dominion seriously.

If they did readopt those old attitudes…..

She didn't know if the Klingons and the Romulans were going to recall their ships or not, although it was possible they wouldn't; just because the Federation might feel hostilities with the Dominion were over didn't mean the Romulans and the Klingons would feel the same.

Both of them had governments who had minds of their own, and they were more belligerent than the Federation Council.

She didn't know as well if the Federation would restart the exploration missions into the Gamma Quadrant or not, though it was possible they would after spending a bit more time negotiating with the Dominion hierarchy, though what the Founders made of it, Ezri didn't know. All she did know was she was _eternally grateful _she wasn't going to be responsible for those decisions.

In the meantime, Ezri had time to think, and that was the cause of her current feeling of _confusion. _It was just so _odd _for her; she felt she had been here for years, and yet it was actually the memories of another woman.

She had the memories of Jadzia through the Dax symbiont, and she remembered _everything _from the wonder of the discovery of the Bajoran wormhole all the way to the painful horror of Dukat's appearance in the Bajoran shrine where the Pah'Wraith inside the deranged Cardassian's body where he'd then killed her former host in cold blood.

Ezri shivered at the memory, especially since they were the memories derived from another person.

But other memories filled her mind, which only confused her even more, and it made her wonder just how trained Trill initiates who trained for years and years to become joined with symbionts coped; she might have access to the memories of the Dax symbiont, but their memories of their training were no help since for each host initiate the exact training method was different, and so Ezri was left floundering.

And yet her perspective was unique; most of the people on the station only had the perspective of one person, she had two; Jadzia's perspective and her own. She could remember all of Jadzia's memories of the discovery of the wormhole, discovering that proto-universe and taking it back through the wormhole after determining its existence outside the wormhole's unique environment with Arjin. Ezri smiled softly though with a little sadness as she remembered how Jadzia had treated the initiate; it was kind of hypocritical the way Jadzia had treated Arjin especially after how she had been treated herself when Curzon had critiqued her, although Jadzia had come to see the point behind Curzon's attitudes which hid his standards.

But Ezri wondered what had happened to Arjin. Jadzia had lost contact with him, and to this day Ezri had no idea how the potential future host of the Dax symbiont had turned out. She had no idea if he had followed Jadzia's advice, or if he had found something else to do rather than try to be the type of person his father wanted.

Thinking about Arjin inevitably made her think about Verad, the total opposite of Arjin who had been denied the _honour _of becoming joined. For Ezri, it was proof positive being joined wasn't what it was cracked up to be.

Many Trill had a romanticised view towards joining, but Ezri had never wanted to be joined. It had nothing to do with the time it would take to be joined, the years and years of training.

No, it was because she had wanted to do things for herself, but that didn't mean Ezri wasn't happy for the lucky few of the population of her people who did become selected to joining. Jadzia had been among them, and she'd had the pleasure of seeing so many things.

But she had been one of the lucky ones.

Arjin and Verad…two completely different people, though one of them had been deranged and had tried to steal the symbiont from Jadzia. Ezri remembered everything from Verad's perspective, and she knew everything about him although he hadn't been joined to the symbiont long enough for him to stamp his personality into the symbiont's mind.

Ezri pushed that aside and decided to continue reflecting on the last seven years while she tried to avoid dwelling on the fact most of the memories came straight from Jadzia.

She looked out into the expanse of space towards where the wormhole mouth was located, remembering all the long hours she -Jadzia had spent studying the wormhole and how everything she had discovered was sent off to various scientific institutions. A smirk crossed her face as she remembered the experiment Lenara Kahn had conducted to create an artificial wormhole using models based on the study of the Bajoran wormhole, although it didn't last as she remembered how Jadzia and Lenara had considered reassociation regardless of what it would mean for them both.

Ezri knew the Dax symbiont, despite wanting that relationship to be revisited, was relieved it wasn't going to die simply because Jadzia had arrogantly made the mistake of getting back with Lenara.

It would be just like Jadzia to think of romance and sex instead of common sense.

Ezri's views towards Jadzia were different from the rest of the crew. Had they forgotten the mess Jadzia had gotten them into when they'd visited Gaia and she'd wanted to investigate the quantum barrier surrounding the planet? All she'd wanted to do was make a scientific discovery. What was the result?

An alternate timeline formed because the Defiant crew had travelled back in time to the 22nd century.

Well done.

Yeah, Jadzia had her good times and her bad, but ever since Ezri had arrived on the station she'd had the crew going on and on about how much they missed Jadzia she had been tempted to just leave and never come back and try to make a new fresh start, especially after that mess with Garak. Ezri was just glad she had gotten through that disaster especially since the Cardassian tailor could spin words masterfully so then you'd believe anything he said.

A starship was passing by the window as Ezri mused and she studied it for a moment. It was a Starfleet Nebula-class starship with its wide saucer section and the glowing blue of the plasma circulating through the nacelles. Ezri wished the ship was passing through the wormhole on its way to explore the Gamma Quadrant.

Life on the station had been so simple before the Dominion War. It had brought so many discoveries through from the mess with Tosk and those hunters, the encounter with Vash before Q had appeared on the station, the telepathic re-enactment of the Saltah'na power struggle which had nearly torn the relations between the Starfleet crew and the Bajoran crew to shreds, and Meridian…

Ezri closed her eyes, partially out of frustration because thinking of Meridian ignited powerful thoughts in the Dax symbiont because of the memories Jadzia had of it, and partially longing for Deral.

It wouldn't have worked.

Ezri knew that only too well. Not only would Jadzia have spent the rest of her life in a non-corporeal state, although truthfully she had no idea if it was even possible for everything that made Jadzia Dax the individual who she survived the process.

At the same time, she remembered the bad times she'd had as Jadzia.

Ezri let out a sigh as she remembered the final battle of the Blood Oath Curzon had taken part in with Kor, Kang, and Koloth with the Albino. It was never easy to say goodbye to a friend or a relative (she would _not even think _about what happened with Norvo, and how her own mother and elder brother had pushed Norvo down that terrible path, although Norvo's own case was different from losing Kang and Koloth. The Dax symbiont was over three centuries old, it had grown used to enduring loss, but it was still never easy.

Thinking of loss made Ezri think about Benjamin.

She wondered what he was learning within the wormhole on the dimensional plane the wormhole aliens the Bajorans knew as the Prophets, but she wondered when he would return. For the wormhole aliens, and now Ben, time had virtually no meaning; he could be with them for a million years relative to where Dax was, and he wouldn't age a second.

She hoped that didn't happen; not only did it mean she would never see Ben again, but neither would Kassidy or Jake, or their new baby. Ezri felt tremendous sympathy for the family and she hoped the wormhole aliens learnt about sympathy and compassion from Benjamin. If he could teach them that then she would be really impressed.

* * *

Ezri is one of my favourite characters in the show. It's a shame they didn't really expand on her much as a character, but I felt that everyone was so shocked by the death of Jadzia they placed her on a pedestal and made her out to be flawless. Did they really forget some of her mistakes, like the one where they were sent back in time?


	4. Chapter 4 Odo

7 Years.

The codes he had been given by the Female Changeling had admittedly worried him, especially given his people's capacity for deception and intrigue that would make even the most capable members of the Tal'Shiar or the Obsidian Order envious, but he knew they were not. Their impressive escort was proof of that. Yes, it had worried them both to be told by the Vorta commanders of the Jem'Hadar ships they would send an escort to the new homeworld of the Founders, and for the majority of the journey, the Jem'Hadar had left them alone.

But things had been tense at first. The Dominion on the other side of the wormhole had been bottled up for the last two years waiting for news as to what was happening and awaiting the day where they could pass through the wormhole and aid in the war effort. It had been a relief for the Federation the _entire _Dominion fleet had not passed through the wormhole shortly after their alliance with the Cardassian Union was discovered.

If they had, then the Alpha Quadrant wouldn't have had a chance.

As he sat next to Nerys in a runabout on the way to the new Founders Homeworld, Odo was unsure whether he should be nervous or happy that he was going home back to his people, but despite looking forward to going home and joining with the Great Link again although the last time he had it had not been pleasant, especially since they were passing judgement onto him, though he had accepted the punishment for the murder of one of their own race.

That time the Founders had been in control. But now he held all the cards, as he had heard often from the Starfleet crew of DS9.

The Great Link was dying thanks to him. _No_, he corrected himself, _Section 31. _

_It had made sense when he had learnt the Federation would have had an organisation like the Obsidian Order, even if the Federation was not the type to even have something like that. _

Odo had said as much to Doctor Bashir shortly after he had been returned after being kidnapped by Sloan, someone whom Odo would have _wanted to have seen justice dealt with, _almost on a scale of Michael Eddington. That meeting had also shown the shapeshifter the naive worldview of the Federation. They had survived for three centuries and they wouldn't have been able to do so if they hadn't had an organisation like Section 31 to ensure the long term security of the Federation. But where the Tal'Shiar and the Obsidian Order were both public organisations, Section 31 was not.

Odo would never forgive Section 31 for what they had done to him or to his people; the Founders had done some truly atrocious things over the centuries they had ruled the Dominion with an iron fist, but _genocide…_

It was something he would never have expected, but looking back he realised he should have been more vigilant when he had gone back to Earth with Captain Sisko before that mess with Leyton's coup.

There was nothing he could do about it now.

He was going home. He just wished he knew how the Great Link would receive him. His relationship with his own race wasn't a particularly happy one; he had been overjoyed to find them after spending so many years either locked up in a laboratory run by Doctor Mora to becoming the security chief of Terok Nor, then later Deep Space Nine, but when he had found that cave with his station-mates hooked up to that virtual reality console, his opinions of his people had become bleak.

Odo pushed those thoughts aside, though he remembered only too well that Founders were the same people who had removed his shapeshifting abilities. The Link may not accept him in the long run, but he had no intention of turning his back on his people. The Vorta had told him they were dying out, but he had won some 'brownie points' (he smiled inwardly; he had been among the solids a long time, but he didn't care what his people thought about that) with the Vorta when he had claimed he had the cure.

Any other race would have questioned it, but the Vorta with their inner faith in their 'Gods' had actually worked in his favour, although he didn't like doing so; he remembered how he had had Weyoun fawn over him when the Dominion occupied Deep Space Nine (he would not even _think _about that mess, and how he had nearly allowed Rom to die, not to mention Kira), and he had always been uncomfortable with the Vorta's reverence for him.

That defective clone of Weyoun telling the story of how the Vorta's ancestors had taken in a changeling from an angry mob might have a few flaws to it, but Odo was willing to bet some of it rang true, reminded Odo of some of the creation stories he had heard over the years.

Sitting in the runabout at the controls, Odo had time to think about the last seven years.

When he had learnt Starfleet were moving in and Bajor would be placed under Federation protection, Odo hadn't entirely blamed the Bajoran people of their fears the Federation would do what the Cardassians had done, although their logic had escaped him. When they had come to the station and wanted him to work under Starfleet regulations, Odo had promptly acted in defiance. He didn't like being tied down to anybody's rules; Gul Dukat had wanted him to work under Cardassian laws, but he had been content to give him space.

But what had annoyed Odo was just how naive the Federation was. They believed in the treaty they had with the Cardassians, not even stopping to think or to see the Cardassians for a bunch of conquerors who were determined to build their empire. If the Cardassians had been strong enough, then the Bajoran Occupation would have been repeated on worlds like Betazed, Trill, and Earth.

Odo had never really interacted with the Federation prior to their taking over the administration of Deep Space Nine and helping with the rebuilding efforts of Bajor itself. He had always thought them as naive, how they believed that inside their communities everything was lily-white and perfect, and as a result, they lacked common sense, and he had been prepared to dislike the new Starfleet commander as a result.

Only Benjamin Sisko had surprised him with the way he had managed to handle Nog when the Ferengi boy had tried to steal those ore samples, and instead of listening to Quark's sob story had him thrown into the brig. His respect for Sisko would increase over the years, but it was when he had blackmailed the sly Ferengi into becoming a community leader and keeping the Promenade up after the withdrawal that it started.

_Not all solids are bad. _

Alright, he admitted to himself many changelings had the right to be both bitter and fearful of solids - the memories of Laas proved that, as did the long-held memories of the Founders themselves which included their own people being hunted, beaten, and killed. Odo himself had been tortured by Garak just before the manipulated attack on the Founder's homeworld by the Obsidian Order and the Tal'Shiar fleets, but overall the solids he had met had proved that was the exception, not the rule. In any case, Laas might not be right, and yet sometimes he sometimes had the feeling his fellow changeling was right.

"My only consolation is that this may finally make you understand that you don't belong here. You saw the hatred in that Klingon's eyes. Perhaps now you'll recognize it when you see it hiding in the faces of your so-called friends. They tolerate you, Odo because you emulate them. What higher flattery is there? I, who can be anything, choose to be like you. But even when you make yourself in their image, they know you are not truly one of them. They know that what you appear to be did not reflect what you really are. It's only a mask. What lies underneath is alien to them, and so they fear it. And that fear can turn to hate in the blink of an eye."

A part of Oda had always known, deep inside that Laas was right.

He had experienced prejudice himself, granted maybe not on the same level as Laas and the rest of his people, but he had on occasion experienced it.

And he hated it.

But for the most parts, he hadn't endured as much because most of the people he had encountered had accepted him; the Bajorans had taken him in, and the Cardassians had used him because of his skills at mediation.

He hated to admit it to himself because of his relationships with his friends, but there were many times that he could accept and even appreciate the point of view of the Founders. He had even adopted their attitudes towards order, but he would never take it as far as his people did.

He had done that once before when he had confused order and justice shortly after he had become the security chief of Terok Nor, and three innocent people had died because he had not bothered to investigate a series of bombings right.

Their deaths still haunted him, and he still remembered the time he had forged a rudimentary link with Sisko, Dax, and Garak and revisited that terrible time which he had recently been reminded of.

Or how about the time where Michael Eddington, back then still a loyal Starfleet officer, though truthfully Odo had no idea when the devious human had become a Maquis?

Starfleet had only posted him to the station because they didn't trust him.

In that Laas and the Founders had a good point, but at the same time, he had to wonder if the Federation's views about other races being equal even applied to shapeshifting races although he knew it wasn't true.

Thinking of Laas made him wonder if the Founders had purposefully sent out the Hundred to ensure the cycle of hatred against the solids continued, though truthfully he knew it was the case, though he doubted all of the Hundred would adopt the same views, but that was something the Founders would be able to deal with when all of their infants returned to continue.

Odo pushed aside those thoughts; thinking of Laas was always difficult, especially since he would always be reminded of what the other changeling had said, and how he had uncaringly demonstrated his disregard for life by killing that Klingon soldier on the promenade, so he decided to shift his thoughts to other areas.

He would certainly miss his friends now they were leaving onto different assignments; the O'Brien family were moving back to Earth so then Miles could take up a job as a teacher of engineering back at Starfleet Academy. The thought made Odo smile; the Chief was an engineering genius and Odo had respected him very quickly. In any case, he had taken on Nog as a student, and look where the young Ferengi was now.

Worf was now the Federation ambassador to the Klingon Empire, so he had one of his long sought after wish to go home. In a way he and Worf were kindred spirits, both of them had a yearning for being left to their own devices, and both of them wanted to go home and be reunited with their people.

Nerys, Dax, and Bashir were still on Deep Space Nine.

And Captain Sisko…

Odo had learnt the hard way the prophets existed. He had also been amazed to learn they existed outside of linear time, but the problem was no-one _knew _when he would return.

He hoped he did.

He hoped to see Captain Sisko again. He had no doubt in his mind that Kira and the others felt the same, but most definitely so would Jake, his new wife, and their unborn child.

Odo even _wondered _if the prophets even knew about the child, but knowing them they probably did. They just decided to ignore it along with so many other things going on in the galaxy.


	5. Chapter 5 O'Brien

7 Years.

As he sat on the transport which would take him and his family back home, all Miles O'Brien could do as he held onto his wife and smiled as she held their sleeping son with Molly seated next to them was think. It was just so hard to believe it had been seven years since he had accepted the assignment to join the, then, Deep Space Nine station following the withdrawal of the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor (when he had heard about the occupation during the Cardassian War, Miles had gone out of his way to collect news about what came out concerning the occupation, knowing the Bajoran people were suffering while the Federation laboured under the impression the Cardassians were trustworthy).

So much had been gained and so much had been lost.

When he had accepted the assignment to go from a mere and ordinary transporter chief on the Enterprise-D a few years before the Galaxy-class starship's brutal destruction above Veridian III, Miles had never expected his life to change forever. Not only had he witnessed the sight of the first known stable known to exist even if at the time no-one, not Sisko, Julian, Nerys, Odo, or Dax could know that they had opened a Pandora's Box of trouble.

Still, if he were given the opportunity like Arne Darvin had tried to take when he had gained access to the Orb of Time to go back in time and change history, Miles knew he would never change anything for the world. Temporal mechanics had little to do with it. He was just grateful to have come through the Dominion War with his mind and sanity intact, the second war he'd come away with, though he was just grateful to come out of it without his family being killed (while the Jem'Hadar were cold-blooded killers, Miles felt it was too dramatic to call it murder, even if he knew he'd have a radically different opinion if anything had happened to Keiko, Molly, and Yoshi), which would be more than could be said about his old commander, Captain Maxwell.

Miles closed his eyes as he thought about his old commander who'd lost his entire family to the Cardies, and he wondered just how much Starfleet was kicking itself for putting everything he had said down to the rantings of a raving madman. Then again, it was likely they had quietly buried what Maxell had suspected about the Cardies; Miles knew his old commander, he wouldn't have gone renegade and went out to attack Cardassian outposts like that unless he was _sure _of what they were doing, even if the evidence stood out against him.

When he had joined the DS9 crew, O'Brien had made it very clear he did not like or trust the Cardassians; while Rugal had been a nice enough lad, and Garak had a certain charm although that mess on Empok Nor had reminded Miles of the dangers of trusting the spy, he had continued to look and regard all Cardassians with suspicion, even though Gilora Rejal had surprised him with how she had become infatuated with him when they had worked together on that project on finding a way of enabling communication through the wormhole (Miles didn't know if she was still alive, but he hoped she was; just because he didn't love her didn't mean she hadn't impressed him), and he recalled how it had been used against him at that farce of a trial, and how the "judge" (he had forgotten the proper title, and he didn't really care to learn more) had used it against him, while his "lawyer" had tried drawing up a "tragedy" where he had grown up abused or hated by his parents, and his marriage to Keiko was one of pure nastiness.

He had known the Cardassians were a truly disgusting people to be around, but the idea of their lawyers trying to spin a tale around the defendant until they confessed their sins was the most disgusting thing he had ever seen or experienced. What made it worse was it was part of a Cardassian plot to frame the Federation of providing weapons to the Maquis.

The Maquis…

Miles remembered how the Maquis had started out as a nuisance even though Michael Eddington later caused a number of problems; he also remembered how he had spoken about the Maquis on the bridge when they were following Kasady Yates ship into the Badlands where they witnessed her meet a Maquis ship, and how he had some sympathies with the Maquis. Worf had said they were terrorists, and in that same way, terrorism was dishonourable.

Miles didn't believe that for a moment. He didn't care what Worf believed about the Maquis. He had fought the Cardassians, he had seen what they had done and what they could do; he remembered how he had gotten his first view of the promenade when he had arrived, saw firsthand how there were still a number of Bajoran people who were long since dead and were being taken away just as the Starfleet personnel arrived. The Cardassians had deliberately left them behind as a sick greeting gift. If that didn't say how disgusting they were, Miles didn't know what wouldn't.

Miles smiled when he heard Molly giggle when Yoshi did something - he didn't know what - but the baby boy was clearly amused by his elder sister. Looking at his son and daughter…Miles remembered how life had been on the Enterprise-D, and how _so much _had changed when they arrived on Deep Space Nine.

It hadn't been easy at first, and Miles still cringed whenever he remembered how he and Keiko argued nearly every day until he had started to dread going back to his quarters he shared with her. Keiko had hoped to spend time on Bajor following the Occupation, maybe even catalogue and study the flora on Bajor. Or rather what was left of it since the bloody Cardies had either plundered so much of the planet's resources or poisoned the soils.

But when the station had moved into orbit near the wormhole, Keiko had lost it because she had nothing to do. More often than not, Miles had wanted to shout at her to go to bloody Bajor, and do something constructive, but he hadn't because he wasn't that type of husband.

The school she'd opened had done her good (the bombing was terrible thanks to those bloody Bajoran extremists, but if his wife had been harmed, he would have taken the law into his own hands), at least until word of the Dominion had come through. After that Keiko had other things on her mind, Yoshi being at the top of the list.

It still horrified him now that their baby had come perilously close to dying, but he was just thankful Nerys had been there and had agreed to become a surrogate mother even though Bajorans were different from humans. The time she had been carrying Yoshi had done a great deal of good for Kira and him; in the past they had just been a superior officer and subordinate, and occasionally they'd had arguments (that mess where their brains had been messed with by those telepathic matrixes was a good example though Miles questioned whether or not it even counted, although there was no chance of it happening in real life; he remembered how he had felt in the aftermath, how dirty he had felt some_thing _taking control of his body and thoughts, and using the tension between the Starfleet crew and the Bajoran crew to reenact some battle that had happened so long ago, the aliens had lost their _bodies _and were still re-enacting it because they had nothing left).

But he would always be grateful for her for being willing, and in truth motherhood had suited Nerys, no matter how much she had complained about the weight, the sneezing (Miles _swore _Keiko was slightly envious that Bajoran women sneezed rather than went through morning sickness, though even Keiko baulked at the thought of sneezing at bad moments), she had been glowing.

Okay, so maybe he and Shakaar had gotten into an argument, but Yoshi was his baby even if Nerys was, at the time, the First Minister's girlfriend, so Miles had thought he was justified.

Out of the viewing port, Miles looked out at the gnarled form of DS9; he hadn't known what to expect when he had first come to this place, but when he had seen the twisted form of the space station, he had not known whether or not he should go back to the Enterprise or not, but he had sucked it up.

He was happy he had.

This place had been the centre of his life for the last seven years. So many amazing and terrible things had happened; the discovery of the wormhole, the business with Tosk, the Circle, the Jem'Hadar and the destruction of the Odyssey, followed by the cold war between the Dominion and the Federation, the Federation-Klingon war, and the Dominion War.

Miles closed his eyes and did his best to forget the memories he had of the war, although he knew he would be haunted by them for the rest of his life, and there were some memories he just wanted to keep to himself.

He wondered how his friends were going to cope.

Kira, Julian, Nog, and Ezri were staying on DS9, while he and Worf were leaving. Odo had already returned to the Gamma Quadrant to, hopefully, change the Dominion around and make them more benign, though he had no idea if it would work; the Founders had gone out into the galaxy with the hope of developing themselves and gathering knowledge, just as the Federation did. Instead, they found nothing but pain, and they had begun to lash out as they adopted a xenophobic view of the universe and believed if they conquered the galaxy and destroyed entire societies with the Jem'Hadar doing their dirty work, they would bring order into the mix.

But Miles wished the shapeshifter luck. He honestly liked and respected Odo, and he hoped he succeeded in trying to sway the views of the Founders, though if it didn't go well… He wouldn't think about that. They had barely managed to survive _one _Dominion War, so the thought of his beloved children going through another was scary.

He thought of Julian, remembering the times they'd had. They hadn't gotten along at first since Julian had been loud and annoying, but it wasn't until that mess with the Harvesters he had begun to see the doctor as a friend, but when it came out Julian was genetically enhanced, Miles had been shocked.

He still kicked himself to this day that he didn't get the elder Bashir's to shut up in the lab while Miles had been working with Zimmerman, but in the aftermath, he'd had to sit through a rant where Julian showed off the terror he felt about his genetic enhancements being revealed. There was a shadow in his eyes, a shadow of his incarceration in that POW camp in the Gamma Quadrant. After that, their relationship had grown stronger.

At the same time, he thought about his other friends, and he wished them well with the future.


	6. Chapter 6 Worf

I don't own Star Trek in any form, unfortunately, I just own this story and the others I've contributed over the years.

Sadly this is the final chapter of the collection; I could have written more, but I want to concentrate on other things. I'm moving house and I want to tie up a few loose ends before I leave.

* * *

7 Years.

It might have been seven years for the DS9 crew, for Worf it had been three years. But still, much like the original seven he'd spent on the Enterprise-D Worf had seen and gone through _so much, _and now he was being allowed to go home at last and be the Federation Ambassador to the Klingon Empire!

Never in Worf's dreams had he imagined it would happen - he had wondered just what it was _he had been doing in the first place _which had made the future version of Alexander coming back in time, but he had never expected to become an ambassador to the Empire - but he hoped what Alexander of that time had seen never happened, though it was possible because the son of B'tor might not have been conceived, though it was possible he was alive.

Worf was not going to try to play God; so many other people had tried in the past - Arne Darvin, and Tolian Soren among them - and if he died, then that was alright with him, although he would have preferred it to be for a more positive reason than being in the High Council chamber on Qo'nos.

But the last few years he had been on DS9…

Even if someone like Q (whom he was relieved to find out did not visit the station as regularly as he had when Worf had been on the Enterprise) came to offer him the chance to change _just one thing, _Worf wouldn't; he remembered the story Jean-Luc Picard had told when he had nearly died when his artificial heart was destroyed, how Q had offered him the chance to make sure the Nausicaan didn't kill him, only for his entire _life _to have changed.

Worf would never allow it even though he had many regrets; he regretted not finding another way of ensuring the House of Mogh survived and that what he had done to Kurn never happened, but there was nothing he could do about that now. In any case, Gowron had been in the wrong, and what he had done by igniting the war with the Federation with the Changeling Martok's backing had no way of changing his mind.

Another thing was if he did try to change his life, he might never have met and married Jadzia.

The thought of his now-dead wife filled him with sorrow. They had only been married for a year, and then she was gone. Worf had long since started to wonder if he was doomed to live for the rest of his life without love; K'Ehyler's brutal murder still haunted him, and the sight of Jadzia lying on that infirmary bed had broken his heart almost until it couldn't be repaired.

Worf wondered if he would ever find anyone else who could fill the vacuum left behind by both K'Ehyler and Jadzia; he might have threatened Doctor Bashir and Quark to stay away from Ezri and saying they would dishonour the memory of his beloved wife, but at the same time O'Brien had told him if anyone was dishonouring Jadzia's memory, it was Worf himself because he was treating Ezri like dirt.

Jadzia had told him about Trill culture, told him how when a host died the symbiont would be passed onto somebody else, and on and on it went. A part of Jadzia would always live on, but Worf had always found it a cruel twist of fate the next Dax host would come to DS9.

Worf pushed those thoughts aside. He was happy now he had gotten over his initial treatment of Ezri, but now he had to think of the future. He was going home and he was going to be ambassador to Qo'nos on behalf of the Federation.

He had no idea how to be a diplomat.

Yes, he had witnessed the diplomatic capabilities of Captain Picard, but Worf was not the type to be a diplomat. Then again Martok kept saying he was not the type of man to be a politician, never mind being the Chancellor of the High Council. And yet Worf knew Martok was wrong. K'mpec, the Chancellor before Gowron, had been both a warrior and a member of the council, but while it was true Martok's knowledge of politics was limited, Worf had no doubt his best Klingon friend would rise to the challenge.

Martok was the opposite of Gowron in every way. Thinking of Gowron made Worf inwardly wince. He didn't regret having killed the former Chancellor; the man's hold over the Empire had always been tenuous for so long, and Worf still got angry thinking about how Gowron had rewritten Klingon history shortly after the civil war with Duras family, slighting Jean-Luc Picard who was right next to Benjamin Sisko as one of the greatest captains whom he had ever served with when Picard had needed help with trying to find and retrieve Ambassador Spock when the latter had travelled without permission to Romulus to begin the reunification between Romulus and Vulcan.

But it wasn't until the war between the Cardassians that Gowron had become more powerful, and with the concurrent war with the Federation, Gowron was very popular since he was calling for war with the Martok changeling backing him. When the Dominion War had taken place, Gowron had stayed at home, where he belonged though looking back Worf could understand his reasoning behind suddenly coming out of the silence and trying to embarrass Martok and forcing him to endure defeat after defeat.

Martok would never make that mistake. Worf knew he wouldn't because it wasn't in the General's nature to do so.

Nor would he try to play the same dirty trick Gowron had tried to play on him during that mission on the Defiant and Worf had been accused of murdering Klingon civilians, including children.

At the same time, he would miss this station even though it had taken him months to adjust to life on it. He remembered how he had interfered in an investigation Odo had been conducting into an act of smuggling of which Quark was conducting on the station, which only served to highlight the differences between the pair of them. Worf would have immediately ordered the arrest of a known criminal, a smuggler and he wouldn't have given any thought whatsoever to the connections.

Odo did. He had taken on the form of a bag, and Worf had interfered. If he had left Odo alone, then the whole organisation would have been brought down. It was that incident which served to make him more uncomfortable with living on the station, which forced him to move onto the Defiant full time until his marriage to Jadzia.

His entire life on the station revolved around Jadzia, but he was hoping that now he was leaving he wouldn't be haunted anymore by her memory.

At the same time, many of the crew were gone - Worf had no doubt Captain Sisko was now in the Bajoran wormhole, though whether he would return Worf had no idea, he hoped he did; Worf had always regretted his poor relationship with his son, and while they had patched things up, Worf was always full of regret and guilt about what he had done by sending his son away.

The last thing he wanted was for Jake Sisko and the captain's unborn child with his second wife Kasady resenting Benjamin. Worf knew how it sat in the heart.

The O'Briens were also going (they were not going to Minsk like Worf had suggested, many times in Vic's bar) back to Earth. Worf smiled as he remembered hearing about Keiko being pregnant again, which more or less coincided around the mess where the Borg had tried to invade Earth again, and how he had wanted to be as far away as he could.

Worf still had bad memories of urging Keiko to push when the Enterprise had been heavily damaged and there were no medical personnel nearby to help. Still, he did love being with Kirayoshi, even though that incident where the boy had hurt himself in Worf's care had almost broken the Klingon's heart, and he had been frightened (not that he would admit it, like he wouldn't admit to being intimidated by Sisko, though Ezri had let it slip) the O'Briens would not want to know him anymore.

The Borg attack also brought back bad memories. He had always known Jean-Luc Picard was a dangerous man in the right circumstances but never had he expected his captain to be so dangerous he would lose his good sense.

Worf had come close to relieving Picard of command of the Enterprise-E when the Borg Sphere had opened a temporal vortex back to the eve of the First Contact where the humans would meet the Vulcans, and the Borg had planned to destroy it, something he did not want to do since his respect for Picard was as high as his respect for Martok and Sisko, and the thought of doing that to him would be dishonourable. Picard had lashed out, showing a darker and nastier side to his character, but after a conversation with that woman from Zefram Cochrane's team Picard had returned to the calm, collected and thoughtful man who was a capable commander and always looked for other options.

Worf had no idea how Picard was doing now, but he hoped the man was happy now the war was over. At the same time, he remembered how he had helped his former shipmates defend the Ba'ku, and knew no matter what they would always be honourable people. Worf wondered how his former captain would take the news he was now the Federation ambassador to Qo'nos, and he wondered if Picard would be willing enough to give him some advice on how to be a good ambassador.


End file.
